CA Supreme Court issues ruling on the legal challenge to Prop 8

Six of these people believe your civil rights can be decided by a popular vote.

The CA Supreme Court has upheld the validity of Prop 8 but also chosen to uphold existing marriages performed prior to Prop 8′s enactment. You can download a PDF of their full decision here or read CNN.com’s online coverage here.

And just a reminder Soulforce has a protest/rally planned this afternoon downtown from 3:00-5:00pm.  Here’s the Facebook event invite which has all the details.  There’s a good old fashioned picket along Colfax but the fun part comes around 4:00pm when several volunteers are going to stage a sit-in at the clerk and recorder’s office (where marriage licenses are issued) and quite likely get arrested.  Again, the protest is open to everyone and the whole arresting part is only for the few people who have already volunteered and received special training.

The GLBT Center of Colorado has released a statement on how today’s decision affects couples here in CO:

“A tremendous number of Colorado couples traveled to California from May to November last year while the state recognized same sex marriage,” said Mindy Barton, legal director of the GLBT Community Center of Colorado. “We continue to encourage those couples here in Colorado to use their marriage as an opportunity to educate others about the importance of having the government, not just friends and family, recognize their relationship.”

Meanwhile in CA already swooping into action the Courage Campaign which is running the following TV ad.  God bless them.

CA Supreme Court to issue ruling on validity of Prop 8 on Tuesday – Denver group planning local protest

From Soulforce’s Facebook event invite:

This morning, the California Supreme Court announced that it will rule on the validity of Prop 8 this TUESDAY, MAY 26th. Over 60 events across the nation are planned for the Day of Decision. Locally, Soulforce in Colorado is organizing a direct action on Tuesday.

The protest on Tuesday will have two parts.

FIRST – from 3:00-5:00pm there will be a peaceful walking picket along Colfax between 14th and 15th streets. This is in front of the Webb Administration Building where marriage licenses are issued.

SECOND – Individuals who have volunteered will stage a nonviolent sit-in and civil disobedience at the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s office. If you’re interested in being trained to participate in the sit-in please contact Chris Hubble ASAP at 303-800-5664.

—————————————————-

WHO: Soulforce in Colorado, YOU, and thousands of Americans at 60 confirmed events throughout the nation!

WHEN: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 from 3:00-5:00pm

WHY: We expect the media in Denver will be covering the Prop 8 decision and we want to give them a way to “localize” the story. We want to take this opportunity to continue the discussion of marriage equality in Colorado and respond to a national call for social change through the ongoing use of nonviolent direct action until the federal government extends equal protection in all fifty states on matters governed by civil law, including marriage equality for same-gender couples.

WHERE: In front of the Webb Administration Building on Colfax between 14th and 15th streets.

—————————————————-

For questions please contact

Chris Hubble at cahubble09@gmail.com or 303-800-5664
Kate Burns at kateburns303@comcast.net or 303-806-8444

Two unique ways to help the community

(FIRST) Nic Garcia who writes for both gayzette and The Met (student weekly newspaper of the Metro State) is seeking

“gay Colorado couples who are legally married. If you know of any, please let me know and how to get in contact with them!”

If you’re a legally married couple or know some, Nic can be reached at nicholas.shane.garcia@gmail.com

(SECOND) The GLBT Center of Colorado is looking for photos of member of the GLBT community in action.  The center needs these to promote the “Healthy Living Area” at PrideFest.  Using photos from our own community is a great alternative to The Center having to buy expensive and generic stock photos so if you’re a photographer with images sitting on your computer this is a great way to help the community out!  More info about submitting photos on The Center’s website here. (scroll down to “Picture a Healthy Community”)

via MHGG

Photos from Saturday’s marriage rally organized by 3rd grader

We had a couple posts up about it last week but on Saturday Denver third grader Ethan organized, held and spoke at a marriage equality rally on the steps of the capitol building.  From the photos you can see turnout was quite good and all the third graders about made for an adorable media event.

At the bottom of this post you can find some links to video of Ethan’s speech as well as a local news report.

Ethan doing an interview with local news before the rally.

Mindy Barton from The Center served as MC while third graders milled about. Eventually they got tired and sat down on the steps.

Curious how many adults showed up?  More photos after the jump!

Photos from Saturday's marriage rally organized by 3rd grader

We had a couple posts up about it last week but on Saturday Denver third grader Ethan organized, held and spoke at a marriage equality rally on the steps of the capitol building.  From the photos you can see turnout was quite good and all the third graders about made for an adorable media event.

At the bottom of this post you can find some links to video of Ethan’s speech as well as a local news report.

Ethan doing an interview with local news before the rally.

Mindy Barton from The Center served as MC while third graders milled about. Eventually they got tired and sat down on the steps.

Curious how many adults showed up?  More photos after the jump!

Activism Opportunity – Day Of Decision Protest in Denver

The California Supreme Court is currently considering a challenge to the validity of Prop 8 and will issue a ruling sometime before June 3rd.

Thing is, we don’t know exactly what day they’ll decide to issue the ruling which makes planning a protest response kind of hard.

So Soulforce Denver has set up an email address that you can subscribe to and be notified as soon as the court announces a ruling and also get information about a local protest to be held here in Denver.

To sign up send an email to soulforcedenver@yahoo.com.

The’re looking for people interested in being supportive by holding signs along Colfax as well as more gung-ho people willing to be “squad leaders” and “peacekeepers” during the protest.

partner benefits in aurora?

 

so just last month the aurora city council voted to offer benefits to both same sex partners of city employees and the partners of unmarried hetero employees. that means if you work for the city, your boyfriend can get that oh-so-elusive health care coverage (and all that other city stuff… but i gotta say i’m a big fan of health care).

 

we’ve had the same thing going in denver for over 10 years and we just got the ability to enter into “agreements” with important people in our lives so they can inherit stuff and make medical decisions, etc. basically some of the rights that marriage allows people. MileHighGayGuy wrote briefly about it on his blog. rights for everyone. now let’s see if we can stop being a right to work state. we’ve got an inclusive ENDA so they can’t fire you for being gay but they can fire you and no tell you why. that’s perfectly ok. harumph.

 

ps, i found out about aurora from OutFront Colorado. it’s recently come to my attention that some of our community members don’t read out community paper. whats up with that? how do you find out about all the great stuff happening?

action is hot

the most important event of this week/month/year has already started here in denver.the creating change conference is  where anybody looking to fight for gay rights in this country will be this week. the national gay and lesbian task force puts on this conference every year and this year it’s here in denver. the aura of the city is different this week. we’ll have to wait and see if the massive influx of queer folks will have an long term effects.

 

 

i’m gonna miss some of it because of work but i’ll be there as much as i can. when i get there, hopefully i’ll get to chat it up with the denver host committee. they’ve been working on betting denver ready for almost a year. oh we’re ready…

queer youth are gearing up

Apparently they’re doing big things. They’re having a statewide conference later on this month to talk about everything from relationships to leadership development. And considering youth and trans folks have pretty much always been the force behind the movement, it’s about time. Kudos to Rainbow Peaks in NO CO, OASOS in Boulder, and  Rainbow Alley here in Denver.

Apparently I’m no longer a youth. who knew